SAZI HADEBE | Money is not everything in football, but proper planning is

I’ve been listening to a lot of debates, mostly on radio, with people having their say on whether Kaizer Chiefs should keep Arthur Zwane as their head coach. 

The question is not surprising given how Amakhosi have performed under Zwane in his debut season as a head coach in a top-flight league. 

I do remember that I was one of the people who pleaded Zwane’s case last season after showing promise working first as assistant to Gavin Hunt in 2020 and as second in command under Stuart Baxter in 2021.  

When Chiefs struggled on the domestic front in 2020, it was Zwane who was handed the reins to finish the season after Hunt was fired with a couple of games left before the end of the 2020/21 campaign. 

I remember the debate that ensued when Baxter took over just days before the end of the 2020/21 season and decided to sit on the bench when Chiefs played in the Caf Champions League final against Egyptian giants, Al Ahly. I felt sorry for Zwane at the time. I thought, having worked with Hunt throughout that season, he was the one deserving to get all the glory that comes with winning the Champions League.  

As fate would have it, Chiefs lost 3-0 to Pitso Mosimane’s Ahly in that final, but it was never lost on Zwane that he was now assisting someone who had seen nothing wrong with possibly stealing his thunder. 

Seeing Zwane sitting next to Baxter in the Chiefs’ dugout during the 2021/22 season you didn’t need to be a rocket scientist to conclude that there was no love lost between the two men. The exchange of fire and blame between the two after Baxter was dispatched was amazing only to those who never suspected bad blood.  

You felt that while Baxter was trying to sway the club to play one way, Zwane was pulling the other way. The results were disastrous, prompting Chiefs’ hierarchy to fire Baxter the same way they did to Hunt in the previous season.  

In everyone’s eyes it was now Zwane’s time. Chiefs, indeed, obliged and appointed the club’s legend to lead the team before the start of the 2022/23 season. 

To say Zwane’s first full season has been underwhelming would be an understatement. The promise has been far from being fulfilled, and it came as no surprise when things came to a head in Rustenburg on Saturday.  

There Zwane had to evade all sorts of missiles thrown by angry club fans after the team lost their penultimate league match 1-0 to SuperSport United. In the melee that ensued, while Zwane was heading to the dressing room after the match, he was hurt.  

When you combine money with better planning, you’ll get the kind of results Sundowns have been churning out since 2013.   

The irony is that the scratch that Zwane suffered was not inflicted by the missiles thrown in his direction, but the security personnel trying to shield him from the wrath of the fans. 

For me this is not the first time Zwane has been thrown under the bus by the people who’re supposed to protect him. Think about it.   

Zwane’s situation reminds me of Steve Komphela’s time at Chiefs between 2015 and 2018, the last coach to last more than two years at Naturena.  

In Komphela the Chiefs management had found a coach who wouldn’t question their lack of buying quality players. Komphela looked happy to have the title of coaching this glamorous Soweto club, and getting results seemed far from being his priority. 

And I think that’s what Zwane is turning to out be at Chiefs by letting the club’s management dictate what he needs. Amid the jubilation of his appointment Zwane forgot to fix his eyes on two key areas that could have saved him from the missiles that were thrown at him last week — the same way Komphela left Chiefs in 2018.     

Zwane never questioned the very thin and inexperienced technical team he was given as support staff. He also allowed the club to buy him no less than nine new players ahead of the season before adding another one in the January transfer window.  

Of the nine players who were bought, three — Dillan Solomons, Kamohelo Mahlatsi and Lehlogonolo Matlou — came from Swallows FC adding to Njabulo Ngcobo and Kgaogelo Sekgota, who they had acquired from the same club the previous season. Of the five former Swallows players, only Solomons has featured regularly this season in Zwane’s team. That should answer anyone’s question on whether any deep profiling was done on all these players before they set foot in Naturena. 

But Zwane’s hits and misses with these new players don’t end there. Zitha Kwinika, Ashley du Preez, Edmilson Dove, Siyethemba Sithebe, Yusuf Maart, Caleb Bimenyimana and Christian Saile (January) were the other seven new players who joined Chiefs at the end of the season. 

Judging by how much they’ve been used, it would seem only Du Preez, Maart, Dove, Sithebe and Saile seem to fit into what Zwane is trying to do at Chiefs. This means Chiefs might have got it wrong in at least half of the new players they signed just before Zwane’s tenure kicked in. 

In teams that pride themselves on proper profiling, having five new players who don’t feature in the team amounts to a huge waste of money on players who were never supposed to be signed in the first place.  

The signing of most of these players happened in front of Zwane, both when he was an assistant to Baxter and when he took over. If Zwane’s eyes were not just on fulfilling his ambition of being a Chiefs head coach, he would have questioned some of these signings.  

But that should not mean taking the blame from the Chiefs management. They know that for a long time they’ve been cutting corners in their endeavours to bring back the glory days. 

When people say Mamelodi Sundowns are dominating the PSL because they have more money, they’re not telling the whole truth. Money is not everything in football, but proper planning is. When you combine money with better planning, you’ll get the kind of results Sundowns have been churning out since 2013.   

Even if you look at the biggest European leagues, it’s not only the moneyed teams in England, France, Germany and Spain that are doing well. Serie A clubs proved this season that better organisation can give you great results; hence Serie A had five clubs in Uefa semifinals — Champions League (two), Europa League (two) and Conference League (one) — this season.  

Chiefs needs better organisation. If Chiefs were to do that, no inexperienced coach would be thrown into the deep end like Zwane was this season. 

Now, back to whether Chiefs should keep Zwane or not for next season. For me the question should be, when are Chiefs going to start investing in the team the proper way? I’m not talking about papering over cracks as Chiefs have in close to two decades. 

That Chiefs are where they are is not Zwane’s fault. The problem lies with the Chiefs management that would not have put Zwane on their bench without proper support if they were honest about changing the club’s fortunes.